With this review being written on Halloween night itself I wanted to take a look at a film that I really haven't seen until now. Which was something that proved to be alot more harder then first thought however there was something that made this film jump out and made me want to talk about it that being the overtly campy nature of the film itself and so then join me as I review the film that featured The Boss's sister in the lead role with the film in question being called simply just "Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers" enjoy.
The plot of this film is a few years after the events of the first film Angela has a job at a camp working as a camp counsellor when she decides to start a new killing spree. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being campy and over the top but in a way that's fun and in a way that lets you know that the makers of this films know full well just what kind of film that there making and because of that they just have fun with it with that being something that comes through in the films plot as while yes it is very firmly a typical summer camp slasher film but it's what the film does with those elements that makes the films plot one that's fun to see as we have all of the elements that you'd expect to see from a summer camp clasher film only now they have a killer that the audience likes and while yes granted this films plot might not be the strongest plot out there but given that that also could be true for both the original and it's sequels it is something that does fit right at home with this film and while this is a plot that could also be seen as being pretty bad and people would have every right for thinking that as the plot isn't all that good either if you look at this film for what it is and are able to take this films plot for exactly what it is then there's a whole lot of fun to be had with this films plot with the plot of the film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Pamela Springsteen as Angela Johnson / Angela Baker and Renée Estevez as Molly Nagle. Also starring in this film is Anthony Higgins as Sean Whitmore , Valerie Hartman as Ally , Brian Patrick Clarke as T.C. , Susan Marie Snyder as Mare , Terry Hobbs as Rob Darrinco , Kendall Bean as Demi , Julie Murphy as Lea , Carol Chambers as Brooke Shote , Amy Fields as Jodi Shote , Benji Wilhoite as Anthony , Walter Franks III as Judd , Justin Nowell as Charlie , Heather Binion as Phoebe , Jason Ehrlich as Emilio , Carol Martin Vines as Diane and The Spy Who Loved Me star Walter Gotell as Uncle John.
Now then inters of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Which was something that was quite surprising as all but one of this films actors are known actors and therefor it would have been really foolish to expect good or even great acting from this films actor and while this films acting isn't OSCAR worthy by any stretch of the imagination it's also alot more better then what it really had any right to be as by all rights this films acting should have been really bad and while it's not as a good as the acting in the first film was it's still really good in it's own right with all of this films actors really nailing their roles and having alot of fun with what little character that they all had to work with in the first place with the best actor in the whole entire film being Pamela Springsteen as Angela Johnson / Angela Baker as she not only had the toughest job out all of this films actors as she had to copy what Felissa Rose did with the exact same character but she also had to make it her own and given her very limited acting experience at the time that is something that must have been hard to do and yet she pulls it off so well with her even helping to make the character of Angela likable in this film with the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Much like alot of the slasher films from the late eighties this one also has alot of really paper thin characters in it. Which it very well could be argued is also apart of the films charm as slot of summer camp slasher films also do have paper thin characters as well and to this films credit it does make good use of those characters abut at the same time there should have been just as much effort into making the other characters standout as there was into making sure that Angela stood out from all of the horror icons out there as all of the characters apart from Angela do start to bend into one another as they don't have anything that makes them standout from each other which is something that really does make it hard for us the audience to like these characters even tho we are meant to want to see them survive the film which does mean that we end up cheering more for Angela as she's the only character that has something in the way of a personality with the other one that's close to having a personality being Angela's best friend in the film Molly and even then Molly isn't all that interesting of a character as she's just the typical final girl type of character only she has nothing added to her character that makes her feel unique with this being something that the makers of this film really could have done and given that they filmed both this film and it's sequel quite literally back to back then they could have had Molly come back for the sequel to kind of by this franchises version of the Tommy Jarvis or Nancy Thompson character and give the attention that she really did need character wise but as it is she feels like the waste of a good character as she has all of the potential there to be a good character and heck even Renée Estevez does her best with the character but there still needed to be that little extra something there to make her a better more well rounded character in the film.
Like alot of the slasher films from the late eighties this film also leaned more into dark comedy with this film going one step further then that by adding an element of camp to the film as well. As while Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and alot of the later Jason Voorhees movies had that dark comedy element in them they never got that campy in those films and yet here they fully embrace the fact that it's dark comedy by not only having Angela sing this overly happy and cheesy camp song but also by having her spout what can best be described as James Bond-esque one liners both during and after alot of the films kills al of which do make this film alot more campy in tone then what we got in the first film which took he same idea as this film but played in entirely straight with the change in tone really working well for this film as the first film was all about building up tension and making us guess just who the killer was going to be but this film doesn't have to do that due to the fact that it's a sequel and so it just has alot more fun with it's premise and with it's killer and while yes granted this film would have worked just as well if it didn't have that campy tone to it it also wouldn't have made the film all the more memorable either as it would then fall in with all of the rest of the summer camp slasher films that came out in the eighties and yet by giving the film this campy tone yes it doesn't improve the quality of the film by any stretch of the imagination it also makes the film alot more memorable to watch as well but there's also something to be said for the film playing every straight as it could be argued that by doing that it would make the film both more scarier and more funnier as well.
This film is actually quite rare for a slasher film not that it's hard to find or anything like that but what makes it rare is that both parts 2 and 3 for this film were shot back to back. With there only being a WEEKEND break between finishing filming this film and starting filming on the third film this is something that really hasn't been done in a slasher film both before this film came out and after it came out just due to the fact that unlike say a comic book movie where you have that natural cut off point in the film you can't really have a slasher film where not only alot of the main characters make it out alive but so does the killer as that's not what happens in a slasher film and so you have to have that time inbetween the filming of one movie and the start of filming the sequel and while there was a practical reason for this as the director of both films Michael A. Simpson wanted to keep the budget for the films under one million American dollars he very easily could have done that anyway as these films aren't by there very nature expensive films to make as you very easily could have made this film for around about three hundred thousand dollars and still get the same quality of effects out of it and then waited a good month or two to then begin working on developing the third film in the series instead of just filming the two films back to back as all that does is end up tiring your cast and crew something which does show in that film as Pamela Springsteen does look to be really tired in that film and when you've just filmed two movies over the course of six weeks that will tire anyone out young or old and yet for one reason or another the makers of this film thought that it was a good idea to film to films back to back even tho that now means that one of the films does suffer due to the fact that the makers of the film just aren't able to give it there full attention.
As was mentioned at several points in this film this film makes Angela a really likable character by only having her kill people that have either wronged her personally or that go against her strong moral code. Which is something that does make her a likable character as the only characters that go against that moral code are characters that aren't really all that likable in the first place and yet the film still wants to boo Angela and cheer for the other characters even tho there the ones that are doing and saying things that they know will get her made granted they don't know that she's a killer but it's still something that makes them really unlikable characters with the only time that Angela becomes somewhat unlikable is when she tries to kill her friend in the film Molly after Molly escapes the house the cabin that Angela left her tied up in and that's really it but by that point we the audience have already decided which of the two characters that we like more and it's Molly as she has nothing interesting or entertaining about her where as with Angela yes she's the films main killer but she's also a really entertaining character who actually has somewhat of a good reason for killing alot of these characters with Angela being this overtly happy character who has grown alot since the first film as she went from someone who barely said a word to someone who in her own words can't shut up and because of that she gets more of a chance to showcase her personality a bit more where she does have this dark and twitsted sense of humor about her but is also someone who wears her heart on her sleeve and takes things really personally and it's those things that help to make her not only a really interesting character but also one that's entertaining and well rounded as well.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty minuets and seven seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you'd expect a film like this to have or rather you would if this film didn't have a pointless flashback scene to earlier scenes in the film that just so happens to be in slow motion as it adds nothing to the plot of the film and is quite literally a filler sequence when the film really didn't need any kind of filler at all as the film has more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and while the film doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as it doesn't develop its plot all that well if it develop its plot then it wouldn't have needed that pointless flashback scene in the first place as all that does is eat up screen time that would have been better used either developing it's plot or developing it's characters as the films characters really do suffer from this as none of them apart from Angela are that well developed as characters with all of the coming across as being very one dimensional characters but for one reason or another the makers of this film thought that we'd forgotten what happened earlier on in the film and therefor needed reminding when we really didn't but what we did need was the very thing that the makers of this film chose not to give us because of that pointless flashback and that's a well developed plot and well developed characters as those are the things that will make a film good in the first place and while yes the first film didn't have either of those things either there was still an effort to have them in there whereas with this film it's the opposite that's true but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing in it tho.
So now then as this a slasher that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the film having some delightfully over the top kills in it all of which suit the more comedic nature of this film and while for a slasher film this film is rather lacking when it comes to gore what little gore that the film does have in it works really well for this film as it isn't to over the top and is only used very sparingly with the only thing that lets the films kills down is that Pamela Springsteen doesn't really hit people very well with all of her hits seeming really weak with the best kill in the whole entire film the scene where she dresses up to guys both of which are dressed up as Freddy and Jason respectively while Angela herself dresses up as Leatherface with her killing each of the boys in ways that are similar to how both Freddy and Jason would kill there victims with her then completing her Leatherface look by wearing the face of one of the boys which really was something that really does make that kill as simple as it is all the more campy and fun then what it really should have been as by all rights those two kills should have been really dull as all they are is just a pair of throat slashes and that's basically it but because of the fact that the makers of the film leaned heavy into the characters that they were basically parodying it was something that really did make those set of kills fun even in a film that's chock full of really fun filled kills in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst the fist film is quite easily the best one of the franchise this film is perhaps the more entertaining of the films just due to how campy and how over the top that this film can be alot of the time which is something that does make this film one that's really fun to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in tis very film in this very review as such that really does mean that this film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Amazon Co . Uk , IMP Awards > Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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